Jeff Gordon has some digging to do ... again

Jeff Gordon miraculously made the Chase, and now he must do something miraculous again in order to win it.

John Clark

By Monte Dutton

Published: Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 11:28 AM.

JOLIET, Ill. – Perhaps the tempo of the season catches fans a bit by surprise, particularly come Chase time.

It’s “down the stretch they go!” as the regular season winds down. The Chase for the Sprint Cup begins at something akin to a crescendo. Twelve drivers are, all of a sudden, lined up tightly with, in the case of this year, a separation of 12 measly points in the whole field of title contenders.

Then the first race ends, and Jeff Gordon is, all of a sudden, 47 points behind. The Cinderella story of the past few races all of a sudden finds himself needing glass slippers again. There’s no rest for the weary, and Gordon must have felt weary after a stuck throttle ended his day.

What happened near the end underscores the frustration. At some point, Gordon’s crew tried their best to get Gordon’s mangled Chevy back on the track, hoping that he could pick up a point by running a few more laps. By the time Gordon got back out on the track, though, he needed to run nine more laps to finish ahead of another driver, Regan Smith, whose engine had failed.

Unfortunately, by the time Gordon was back on the track, the race had only seven laps remaining. He ran a couple laps, at which point everyone realized there was nothing to gain, so he drove his beat-up Impala back to the garage area, packed up and went home.

NASCAR lines them up for the Chase darn near equal, but then the point system kicks in again. Nine races remain, and Gordon finds himself digging out of a hole again. He can’t afford any more misfortune if he is going to win a fifth championship at age 41.

Brad Keselowski was a big winner in Chicagoland Speedway’s Chase opener, but he didn’t gain nearly as much as Gordon lost.

JOLIET, Ill. – Perhaps the tempo of the season catches fans a bit by surprise, particularly come Chase time.

It’s “down the stretch they go!” as the regular season winds down. The Chase for the Sprint Cup begins at something akin to a crescendo. Twelve drivers are, all of a sudden, lined up tightly with, in the case of this year, a separation of 12 measly points in the whole field of title contenders.

Then the first race ends, and Jeff Gordon is, all of a sudden, 47 points behind. The Cinderella story of the past few races all of a sudden finds himself needing glass slippers again. There’s no rest for the weary, and Gordon must have felt weary after a stuck throttle ended his day.

What happened near the end underscores the frustration. At some point, Gordon’s crew tried their best to get Gordon’s mangled Chevy back on the track, hoping that he could pick up a point by running a few more laps. By the time Gordon got back out on the track, though, he needed to run nine more laps to finish ahead of another driver, Regan Smith, whose engine had failed.

Unfortunately, by the time Gordon was back on the track, the race had only seven laps remaining. He ran a couple laps, at which point everyone realized there was nothing to gain, so he drove his beat-up Impala back to the garage area, packed up and went home.

NASCAR lines them up for the Chase darn near equal, but then the point system kicks in again. Nine races remain, and Gordon finds himself digging out of a hole again. He can’t afford any more misfortune if he is going to win a fifth championship at age 41.

Brad Keselowski was a big winner in Chicagoland Speedway’s Chase opener, but he didn’t gain nearly as much as Gordon lost.